Ok folks, so last year I ran a competition for an entry into the 2014 Bastion which involved predicting the distance I would cover in a T30 (30 minute) swim. Steve Berry won that competition and is back again this year after catching the iron distance triathlon bug

Once again, the kind people at Castle Triathlon have put up a free entry for this year's race. Details of this year's event (on 12th July) are here:-

This year, I'm not so confident I'll cover 30 minutes ( ) so I've opted for a more manageable challenge of swimming a 400m TT. However, to make things more interesting, the competition will involve guessing the time differential between my 400m time and my 13 year old daughters 400m time in a head to head time trial in the pool, during morning swim practice on Wednesday 22nd April

In terms of details, mine and Megan's short course PB's are as follows:-

Me - 4:32.97 - date (I can't remember!) - venue - Ponds Forge

Megan - 4:37.65 - date: 20/01/2015 - venue: Barnet Copthall

In terms of other relevant detail, I'm currently training between 0hrs and 4.5hrs in the pool. Megan is averaging 12hrs a week.

So, now the detail - the objective is to guess the time differential in seconds between us. Times will be recorded to the nearest 100th of a second. In the event of two or more people guessing the correct time, then the winner will be decided by the nearest guess to my 400m time.

Entries can be either by a post on my Facebook page, my Twitter feed or on the reply to my TriTalk blog. Guesses can be either positive (if you think Megan will be faster - eg. If I swim 5 minutes and Megan swims 4:50, the time difference will be +10.00 seconds) or negative (if you think Megan will be slower eg. If I swim 4:50 and Megan swims 5:00, the time difference will be -10.00 seconds). So you need to give me a + or - time in seconds and (for matching guesses) an estimated time for my swim.

I consider I've always had a good sense of knowing when it was time to change direction in terms of life choices. Looking back I can track distinct moments in time when I've decided to pursue new goals and move away from things that hitherto had occupied my time.

Over the last 7 years a significant focus has been achieving triathlon success at age group/amateur level. In many ways it has been a selfish pursuit, although I believe that the underlying reason for chasing my triathlon goals was a sound one. However, I now believe that the reason for pursuing those personal sporting goals can be fulfilled without concerning myself with times or podium success. That being the case, my main focus for 2015 will be exercising and/or racing to an extent that is compatible with being part of the kids' development. As I don't believe that the amount of training I want to commit to going forward is sufficient to justify the considerable investment given by Team Freespeed and their sponsors, I will no longer be part of the team going forward. I hope that this will afford the opportunity for someone to be part of what is in my view the best amateur triathlon team out there. There is no doubt in my mind that the three years that I have been on the team have been the most enjoyable of my triathlon career and I have nothing but gratitude to Richard, the team sponsors and teammates for the opportunities and support I've been given. Thank you.

Having discussed things with Helen and the kids, it is clear that they enjoy the fact that I swim, bike and run and they want me to continue. They (as do I) also want me to be involved with them swimming, biking, running (exercising) and being around more instead of travelling abroad to races and training camps etc. without them. In that vein, my triathlon plans for 2015 will be to complete, as distinct from compete, Wimbleball 70.3 at the end of June, the Outlaw at the end of July and Challenge Weymouth in mid September. Although that may appear incompatible with what I've said, the fact is that without a "race" to train for, it will be all to easy not to train. Therefore these race entries will provide the motivation for me to do sufficient training to cover the distances without too much pain, keep me fit and stop me working too many hours.

In terms of the kids' development, despite my (joking) attempts to discourage them from pursuing swimming as a sport (having witnessed the stupid amount of training that is required), they've all, in varying degrees, expressed a desire to develop their swimming. The boys have also shown a genuine interest and aptitude for road cycling. As it's somewhat inevitable that I'll be spending an increasing amount of time in and around swimming pools whilst they're training/competing etc, I've now committed to renewing and developing my swim coaching qualifications and have started in a support coach role with the kids' swim club. I'm also committed to helping the boys with the road cycling. As part of that, this year will see the majority of training that I do do being focused on the bike and supplementing time trialling with some bike racing. I'll fill you in more on that score in due course...._________________Swim smart, Bike strong, Run tough
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The final decision to race Barcelona took place after Mont Tremblant on the basis that I believed I could go under 9 hours. Knowing the course, I broke the nine hours down as 50 minutes for the swim, 5 minutes for transitions, 4:45 for the bike, leaving me 3:20 for the run. I went into the race confident and in good shape. A power and time PB for a 50 mile TT the weekend before followed by a good run off at target run pace was a good boost.

After some glorious days with temperatures in the mid 20’s, race morning brought thunder, lightning and torrential rain. Lovely. A 30 minute delay to the start for safety reasons was welcome, as was the news the swim wasn’t cancelled. The male Pro’s started at 9:00am, followed by females, paras and then the age groups waves, all at 3 minute intervals. The M45 wave was the penultimate wave ahead of relays, and 23 minutes after the first wave.

A beach start, a short run and we were off. I swam with Steven Lord until the first turn buoy (at circa 200 metres) before starting my navigation through the earlier waves. A choppy swim made things interesting, and although I had to change course a few times to avoid traffic, I enjoyed the swim and was chuffed to discover I posted the fast swim of the day, beating the first male PRO by 1 second with 49:21.

T1 was efficient and when I saw that there weren’t many bikes unracked from earlier starts, I knew I’d had a good start.

I made my way steadily through the 3k section in town onto the main drag where the main laps started and bang on my planned time. As I settled into my rhythm, I worked towards my target power. Of a slight concern was that I was having to put in quite an effort to hit my planned power. After a short while I decided that the power was unsustainable, so I backed off a bit and used my heart rate as a guide. Happily, as the road surface was so good, my speed was where it needed to be (if anything, slightly ahead) and I reached the first turn point bang on target. Having ridden most of the first 72k lap on my own, I got swamped by (what transpired to be) the first of a number of big packs of riders. Apart from being an irritant, I wasn’t too concerned as it appeared that the riders were from earlier waves, so not direct competitors. Although, my main aim was time related, my secondary goal was to make the podium, so I still wanted to monitor the competition. However, of more concern was that I couldn’t hold onto the “packs” and got spat out the end. My theory is that the effort I’d put in trying to hit my target watts and/or the fact that my bike legs weren’t firing had taken its toll. With my power starting to drop I was still pleased to hit half way at 2:22ish, so still on target, although not hugely confident that I’d be able to match that split for the second half.

Just after 90k I got caught by teammate Richard Hobson (Hobbo) who was off the back of a pack – he said that the drafting was an absolute joke. Again, I couldn’t keep with that pack, but my focus at that stage was to make sure I still took on my nutrition and keep the effort at a sustainable level. I rationalised that my previous best run performance (at Roth) where I’d run 3:08 had come off a poor bike, so my take was that even if I couldn’t hit my intermediate bike target all was not lost.

The end of the second lap, saw me down about 5 minutes, which didn’t seem too much of a disaster and the prospect of a shorter 30k lap gave me a mental boost. That, an a caffeinated espresso gel kick started a resurgence and I then was able to start working back through the field. On the final return things got a bit more crowded with earlier waves on the course – this is when I had to get vocal, not just with the riders, but also the marshalls – thankfully the marshalls saw that I was getting blocked and started blowing whistles to get riders out of my wave as I was gesturing that I wanted to ride through. So, a nice final burst saw me entering T2 in 5th just behind a big Belgian lad in a Team Talent speedsuit. He didn’t look like a runner. My bike split was just over 4:50. Considering I wasn’t having an “on” day, I was ok with that.

So a 3:15 marathon needed for Sub 9. Interestingly the T2 times didn’t include the change tent (which was therefore added to the run splits). So, although a 1:08 T2 might get me some brownie points with my coach, in reality it was 2 minutes slower than that. In any event, my swim and T1/T2 times were circa 55 minutes combined which was right on target.
Onto the run and I felt quite good. The first k was under target pace, so I tried to slow things down a bit. Josie (Perry) who was out supporting her hubby (Paul) confirmed I was in 4th, so all to play for. I saw Hobbo who seemed to be about 1.5k or so ahead and running well. The K’s clicked off and through 10k ahead of target pace, but slowing. My approach was to play a patient game and keep chugging and see where it got me. I hit the half way at 1:37ish (on my Garmin). Based on my pace slowing I wasn’t expecting to hit 3:15, but I was determined to hit 3:20. At this point I also discovered that the Cola was some “happy shopper” junk! Thankfully we were allowed to have personal support past the aid stations, and Stuart (Anderson) was able to procure me some authentic Coke which helped. Apart from one short stop where I tried (unsuccessfully) to be sick (a mere retch in the end) I was happy to have kept moving throughout the race.

Shortly before the turnaround on lap 3 I saw that I’d closed the gap to Hobbo. I eventually caught him at the 30k point and it transpired he was suffering with leg cramps. Although not entirely sure where I was, I’d guessed I was in third. At this point I also started to throw a bit of caution to the wind and slowly my K splits started to get quicker. At this point I borrowed a little mantra from my buddy Deenzy regarding anyone’s ability to run a 10k which involved a few expletives. It worked. With about 2k to go I passed Lordy on his 3rd lap who, as is typical of him, offered some kind words and triggered another pick up in pace. I finished strongly and was hopeful I’d done enough to hit the podium. A 3:20 on my garmin (3:22 official run split including T2 change tent) and just under 9:06 with a 9:05:59 (I had to sprint to get a time starting with 9:05** ) final time.

Once I passed the finish line, my body shut down and things got a bit emotional. I had a bit of a lie down in the medical tent and after an hour or so I managed to take on some solid food and beer before getting my streetwear bag and my phone…scrolling through all the messages I discovered I was 4th, hmmmm, annoying….it then transpired that one guy showing ahead of me hadn’t completed the full course, so the official results had me on the podium in 3rd. Nice.

Although I didn’t hit my main target, making the podium softened the blow. The highlight was the swim, followed closely by running myself onto the podium. Although I haven’t done the maths, I think I may well have dropped down a few places before the end of lap 3 which makes the run even more pleasing. Yes, it would have been good to have run faster, but for me it wasn’t so much the about the run time, but more about how I managed the run. As much as anything this was also a result of how I managed the bike, making sure that I was sufficiently fuelled and hydrated so that I didn’t blow up on the run.

With 6 Kona slots on offer, it was also nice to be able to make the 7th placed finisher a happy man as I’d already decided not to take my slot. Having benefitted in the past from roll downs it was good karma to give something back _________________Swim smart, Bike strong, Run tough
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